


the end

by quartzguts



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, M/M, Vague Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27673637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quartzguts/pseuds/quartzguts
Summary: Noctis tries to save the man he loves, and fails.
Relationships: Ardyn Izunia/Noctis Lucis Caelum
Comments: 3
Kudos: 26





	the end

Water drips from the overhang in a steady rhythm. The rain hasn't let up for days, weeks even, a constant tempest beating down on the earth. Each droplet clings desperately to the sleek metal roof before gravity and wind carry them away, stretching the little spheres into needles that piece the soil. Noctis watches the rain fall passively, tapping his foot to its frantic rhythm. Behind him, Ardyn hums.

It's been like this forever now. Ardyn hums, wordless, his eyes a blank slate as Noctis dresses and feeds and bathes him. Nothing ever changes, even on days when Noctis is sentimental or lonely enough to press chaste kisses to his lips, mimicking what they did in days long past. Ardyn hums, and lets Noctis care for him, and otherwise does nothing and says nothing and _is_ nothing, nothing but the shell of a man who used to have a soul. One dripping with darkness and scourge, granted, but a soul nonetheless.

"Do you remember it at all?" Noctis asks, monotone, the same words he's repeated a thousand times before. "What it was like before, I mean. When you were alive. Before I screwed everything up."

Ardyn hums along, unbothered.

"I guess that's a no," Noctis says. He twists the Ring on his finger. The Lucii are silent. They've been silent since Noctis tossed away their power and dragged Ardyn's soul kicking and screaming back into his body. Ghosts have no need for disobedient princes. Neither do gods, Noctis guesses; when he reaches back to lay his hand over Ardyn's, Ramuh's disapproval cracks through the air. Neither the rain's rhythm nor Ardyn's melody stutter.

Noctis sighs. "Got it. Come on, up you go." Ardyn stumbles to his feet like a newborn anak walking for the first time. "You're probably hungry, right? Let's go. I think I saw some crops a ways back."

The rain slicked ground betrays them; Ardyn falls hard, and even with the added height and muscle his time in the Crystal gave him, Noctis struggles to hold him upright. Water pools in the Chancellor's hat, spilling over onto their faces. Ardyn's mouth hangs open in an instinctual expression of shock. Noctis's lip trembles.

"It's okay," he says hoarsely. "Food first, yeah? As long as we survive, then one day… I promise. I'll fix this."

The rain turns to hail, icy shards that cut Noctis's skin and clothes. He buries his face in Ardyn's throat to avoid meeting Shiva's eyes. "It'll all be okay."


End file.
